At a laboratory an hour's drive from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, a woman with a white mask over her mouth presses bright red strawberries into a pot, ready to be measured for radiation contamination.

Six years after a massive earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered meltdowns at three of Fukushima's reactors, local mothers with no scientific background staff a laboratory that keeps track of radiation levels in food, water and soil.

As some women divide the samples between different bowls and handmade paper containers, others are logging onto computers to keep an eye on data - findings that will be published for the public to access.

The women on duty, wearing pastel-coloured overalls, are paid a small salary to come in for a few hours each day, leaving them free to care for their children after school.

"In universities, data is handled by qualified students, who have taken exams qualifying them to measure radiation. Here, it's done by mothers working part-time. It's a crazy situation," laughed Kaori Suzuki, director of Tarachine, the non-profit organisation that houses the mothers' radiation lab.

"If a university professor saw this I think they would be completely shocked by what they see."